T&D Bicentennial Events

Colby Theater and Dance Department is celebrating the College’s 200th birthday with a full season of exciting programming, including a specially commissioned world premiere by Colby professors Lynne Conner (Theater and Dance) and Jon Hallstrom (Music) and the T & D Professional Alumni Series, a year-long touring program featuring the work of accomplished alumni.

Light of the Mind is a highly theatrical multimedia performance work created by Colby faculty members Lynne Conner (Theater and Dance) and Jon Hallstrom (Music). Featuring a live ensemble of musicians and actors, the piece celebrates two hundred years of liberal learning through music, text and a projection score made up of hundreds of images from Colby past and present. A team of professional artists perform with a student ensemble under the direction of Conner and Hallstrom. The performance will be stage on February 27, 2013 as a featured event of the bicentennial schedule.

The T & D Professional Alumni Series showcases two highly accomplished theater and dance majors: Heidi Henderson (‘83) and Reid Farrington (‘99). As a professional dancer Henderson has performed with leading choreographers Bebe Miller, Nina Wiener, Peter Schmitz, Sondra Loring, and Paula Josa-Jones. Her contemporary dance company, elephant JANE dance, has appeared in London, New York, Boston, Jacob’s Pillow (Becket, MA), Bates Dance Festival and throughout the northeast. Farrington is a new media artist, theater director and stage designer whose innovative multi-media performance works have been presented at P.S. 122, the Abrons Art Center, the Walker Art Center and the PS/K2 Festival in Copenhagen. He is currently developing a performance installation for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City based on “The Cupid,” about an ostensible Michelangelo sculpture found at the French Embassy in NYC. His work has been praised in The New York Times, American Theater Magazine, Lighting and Sound America, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York.

The Making of The Passion Project: Open Lecture by Reid Farrington. October 10 at 4 p.m.Strider Theater

The Passion Project by Reid FarringtonOctober 10 at 8 p.m., October 11 at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., October 12 at 7 p.m.Strider Theater

Reid Farrington’s (Colby ’99) The Passion Project is a forty-minute performance installation that explodes Carl Dreyer’s immortal film classic, The Passion of Joan of Arc, into an immersive projection environment placing the audience inside the film, sitting next to Joan, and subjecting them to the relentless questioning of her judges. The images from Dreyer’s masterpiece float through the air on screens made of simple wood and parchment, wielded by a solo female performer who makes Joan’s emotional journey palpable. This innovative blend of dramatic storytelling, archival film footage and cutting-edge technology creates a series of powerful and moving portraits.

“What Beauty there is in Mr. Farrington’s work. Like Dreyer’s film it is both luminous and cruel.” ~Claudia La Rocco, New York Times

“The Passion Projectis a breathtaking tour de force for both creator and director Reid Farrington and performer Laura K. Nicoll. ~Mark Rifkin, This Week in New York

“In my dances the neatness of minimalist art meets the messiness of life. Simple structures, when filled with human bodies moving, create meaning. My dances are meant to be seen close, the performers touch and sweat and see into each other’s eyes. These dances are real: messy, emotional, highly structured, single minded, fluid, quiet, and virtuosic.” Don’t miss this opportunity to see elephant JANE dance in motion on Strider Stage.